For over a century scientists have tracked the nutrient content of fresh produce, including pumpkin. In that time, they have seen a disturbing trend in diminishing nutrition in small garden crops. It turns out that pumpkin is an exception to this trend with increases in riboflavin, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, and iron. Though these pumpkin-specific results are not statistically different from zero, the larger trend toward decline is significant. To learn more about the trend and what you can do, read our more general article.
Change in Nutrients for Pumpkin
In the table presented here we provide the nutritional content of pumpkin from 1950 and 1999. The 1950 values for pumpkin are adjusted for water content so that the 1999 and 1950 values have comparable levels of dry matter. These nutrient indicators are based on a very small number of data points and not one of the apparent individual changes are statistically different, but all together, they suggest that nutrient values have declined in small garden produce.
Nutrient Change In Pumpkin
| Nutrient | ||
| Calories | ||
| Protein | ||
| Fat | ||
| Carbohydrates | ||
| Ash | ||
| Calcium | ||
| Phosphorus | ||
| Iron | ||
| Vitamin A | ||
| Thiamin | ||
| Riboflavin | ||
| Niacin | ||
| Vitamin C |
|
*The 1950 data is adjusted for water content. |
Creative Commons License: Share the Knowledge
The graphs used to display changes in nutrients in garden crops on the Traditional Foods site, including change in pumpkin, can be redistributed for noncommercial use with a linked attribution to this specific page or to our our page that describes the data project here.
Nutrient Data Source
The historical values on the nutrient content of fruits and vegetables has been archived and made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It was also compiled by Davis, Epp, and Riordan whose work we describe on this website. We adjusted the 1950 pumpkin nutrient content so that the water content of the 1950 and 1999 samples would be comparable, as did Davis, Epp, and Riordan.
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